In a major bureaucratic reshuffle, several IAS and IPS officers have been transferred out of Delhi, including Municipal Corporation of Delhi commissioner Ashwani Kumar (1992 batch) and Delhi chief electoral officer R. Alice Vaz (2005 batch), both of whom will move to Jammu and Kashmir, according to an order issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Sunday. Senior IAS officer Sanjeev Khirwar (1994 batch) will return to the national capital from Ladakh.
The order, issued with immediate effect, lists eight IAS officers moved out and 15 posted to Delhi, impacting key civic and electoral roles. (File photo)
The MHA order, dated January 4 and issued by undersecretary to the government of India Rakesh Kumar Singh, states that with the approval of the competent authority, the transfers of 31 IAS officers and 18 IPS officers of the AGMUT cadre have been ordered with immediate effect and until further orders.
According to the order, eight IAS officers have been transferred out of Delhi, while 15 has been moved to the national Capital. These include Ashwani Kumar (1992), Shurbir Singh (2004), R. Alice Vaz (2005), Anjali Sehrawat (2013), Hemant Kumar (2013), Ravi Dadhich (2014), Kinny Singh (2014) and Kumar Abhishek (2016). The order also states that 15 IAS officers have been moved to Delhi, the senior-most among them being Sanjeev Khirwar (1994), Santosh D Vaidya (1998), Padma Jaiswal (2003), Yashpal Garg (2008) and Sanjeev Ahuja (2008).
Ashwani Kumar served as MCD commissioner from June 2024 to January 2026. Earlier, he was appointed special officer overseeing the unification of the three municipal corporations into a unified MCD from May 2022 until elections were held and a mayor appointed in February 2023. As a special officer, he exercised the powers of the deliberative wing and also served as principal secretary, home, in the Delhi government.
R. Alice Vaz was appointed chief electoral officer of Delhi by the Election Commission of India in December 2024, succeeding P. Krishnamurthy, ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections held in February 2025. She oversaw electoral roll finalisation amid allegations of manipulation by the Aam Aadmi Party. Vaz, a 2005 batch AGMUT cadre officer, is currently serving as secretary in Delhi’s Directorate of Higher Education.
The reshuffle also marks the return of Sanjeev Khirwar to Delhi. In May 2022, Khirwar faced allegations that athletes at the Delhi government-run Thyagraj Stadium were forced to end training early because he brought his dog to the facility for evening walks. Khirwar termed the allegations “absolutely incorrect”, saying he “sometimes” walked his pet there but denied disrupting training. Following a report by The Indian Express, he was transferred to Ladakh, while his wife Rinku Dugga (IAS) was transferred to Arunachal Pradesh.
The reshuffle will also see five IPS officers moved out of Delhi, including additional commissioners of police Mangesh Kashyap and Rajeev Ranjan Singh, and DCP Shahdara Prashant Priya Gautam.